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ADDRESS  AND  PROCEEDINGS 


OF     THE 


FRIEIDS  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 


ASSEMBLED  IN  FANEUIL  HALL, 


y,  September  15tl),  1852, 


IN 


MASS    CONVENTION. 


BOSTON: 

JAMES   FRENCH,    78    WASHINGTON    STBEET, 
1852. 


t 


DEAR  SIR  :— Please  read  and  circulate  this  copy  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
WEBSTER  UNION  WHIG  CONVENTION. 

By  request  of  Executive  Committtee. 

A.  WILSON,  Secretary. 


PRESS     OF    THE 


FRANKLIN     PRINTING    HOUSE, 
210  Washington  ^ej 


PROCEEDINGS. 


THE  friends  of  DANIEL  WEBSTER  and  the  Union,  assembled  in  Faneuil 
Hall  on  Wednesday,  the  15th  hist.,  at  12  o'clock,  for  deliberation  and  action. 

The  Convention  was  called  to  order  by  CHARLES  A.  WELLS  of  Boston,  and 
temporarily  organized  by  the  choice  of  HENRY  LYMAN  of  Watertown,  as 
Chairman,  and  JAMES  FRENCH  and  S.  M.  HOBBS  of  Boston,  as  Secretaries. 

Messrs.  D.  F.  McGilvray,  Charles  Torrey,  James  French,  C.  R.  Ransom, 
and  Charles  A.  Wells,  were  deputed  a  Committee  to  retire,  select,  and  re 
port  a  list  of  permanent  officers  for  the  Convention. 

MR.  TORREY,  in  answer  to  a  general  call,  made  a  brief  address,  which  was 
received  with  great  applause. 

The  Committee  on  Organization  here  reported  the  following  list  of  officers  : 

For  President,  HENRY  LYMAN  of  Watertown. 

For  Vice  Presidents,  Tuos.  TIIACHER  of  Roxbury,  JAB.  DALTON  of  Boston, 
GEO.  REVERE  of  Needham,  CHAS.  A.  WELLS,  LEVI  BRIGHAM,  WM.  SHIMMIN 
of  Boston,  LUTHER  GRIPPING  of  Richmond,  DUDLEY  HALL  of  Medford,  CHAS. 
TORREY  of  Boston,  JESSE  CHICKERING  of  West  Roxbury,  B.  P.  POORB  of 
West  Newbury,  SAM'L  L.  CUTTER  of  Cambridge,  and  PLINY  CUTLER  of  Boston. 

For  Secretaries,  SAMUEL  KETTELL,  JAMES  FRENCH,  JAMES  L.  BAKER,  and 
SAMUEL  M.  HOBBS. 

The  report  was  unanimously  accepted,  and  adopted,  and  the  officers  having 
taken  their  seats  on  the  platform,  Pres.  LYMAN  made  a  brief  speech  of  thanks. 

On  motion  of  Archelaus  Wilson  of  Boston,  that  gentleman  and  Messrs. 
Hubbard  Winslow,  and  Charles  Torrey  were  appointed  a  Committee  to  pre 
pare  an  Address  to  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  setting  forth  the  reasons  of 
the  present  movement  of  the  Union  Whigs. 

Messrs.  J.  L.  Dimmock,  S.  L.  Cutter,  C.  A.  White,  J.  Q.  Kettell,  and 
Edw.  A.  Vose  were  appointed  a  Committee  to  report  a  list  of  Webster 
Electors  to  the  Convention. 

Hubbard  Winslow,  here,  in  response  to  a  call,  made  a  short  speech,  to 
show  the  cause  of  Mr.  Webster's  defeat  at  Baltimore,  and  also  in  defence 
of  the  present  movement. 

Messrs.  Chas.  A.  White,  Arthur  Pickering,  J.  D.  Hedge,  J.  Fullerton, 
and  Chas.  A.  Wells,  were  appointed  a  Committee  to  report  the  names  of 
ten  persons  who  shall  constitute  the  "  WEBSTER  STATE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE 
OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr.  Wilson,  on  behalf  of  the  Committee  on  the  subject,  here  reported  the 

foll°wins" 


ADDRESS 

TO    THE    WHIGS     OF    MASSACHUSETTS 


The  step  which  a  very  large  number  of  your  fellow  citizens,  now  assem 
bled  in  Faneuil  Hall,  are  about  to  take,  is  a  highly  important  one,  and 
should  be  taken  upon  rendered  reasons. 

We  are  met  here,  most  of  us,  doubtless,  as  Whigs ;  not  unaccompanied, 
perhaps,  by  some  of  our  Democratic  friends,  who  sympathise  with  us  in 
our  desire  to  do  justice  to  a  great  statesman,  who  is  the  property  of  no 
party,  but  who  belongs,  in  a  high  sense,  equally  to  us  all.  Still,  the  great 
body  of  this  assembly  consists,  undoubtedly,  of  Whigs ;  and  it  is  therefore 
to  our  fellow  Whigs  that  we  are  chiefly  to  submit  what  we  have  to  say. 
At  the  same  time  we  cannot  forget  that  we  are  here  also  as  American  cit 
izens,  standing  upon  the  soil  of  a  free  country,  and  free  to  act  according  to 
our  own  convictions  of  duty. 

The  representatives  of  the  Whig  party,  chosen  as  such  according  to  its 
usages,  and  assembled  in  National  Convention,  have  by  a  very  small  ma 
jority,  made  a  nomination  of  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  army  for  the 
Presidency  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  first  inquiry  to  be  made  by  us, 
as  members  of  that  party,  is,  whether  we  in  any  just  sense  are  bound  to 
vote  for  this  candidate,  and  for  no  other  ?  It  needs,  in  our  judgment,  no 
great  amount  of  argument  to  solve  this  question.  Upon  the  great  general 
principle  on  which  all  our  institutions  rest,  the  majority  are  to  rule ;  and 
when  the  voice  of  the  majority  is  expressed  in  those  forms  which  constitute 
the  enactment  of  Law,  no  man  can  go  behind  it,  or  absolve  himself  from  its 
obligations,  while  he  remains  in  society.  This  principle  is  attempted  to  be 
applied  by  analogy  to  the  doings  of  political  parties.  But  the  analogy  is 
extremely  imperfect.  There  is  a  broad  distinction  between  the  decrees  or 
decisions  of  a  body  of  the  representatives  of  a  party,  in  reference  to  the 
obligations  which  they  impose  upon  its  members,  and  the  decrees  of  ihe 
legislative  representatives  of  the  people,  in  reference  to  the  obligations 
which  they  impose  upon  the  citizen.  The  former  cannot,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  have  the  force  of  law,  because  they  do  not  rest  upon  its  sanctions. 
They  must,  therefore,  be  referred  for  approval  to  the  judgment  of  individ 
uals,  who  are  to  receive  and  obey  them,  according  to  their  own  convictions 
of  their  intrinsic  propriety  and  fitness  to  promote  the  public  good. 

We  speak  here,  of  course,  of  the  rule  that  is  applicable  to  the  citizen 
who  has  taken  no  part  in  initiating  or  conducting  the  party  proceedings, 
which  have  led  to  a  particular  result.  What  rule  is  applicable  to  those 


who  have  taken  part  in  those  proceedings,  we  have  now  no  occasion  to  in 
quire.  We  speak  for  those  and  to  those  who  stand  free  from  such  connec 
tion,  but  are  yet  members  of  the  same  party;  and  we  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying,  that  the  attempt  which  has  been  made  to  force  upon  such  persons  an 
obligation  of  honor  to  support  a  nomination  which  they  may  disapprove,  is 
without  a  shadow  of  justification.  The  decision  of  a  National  Party  Con 
vention  is  in  no  sense  conclusive  upon  the  conduct  of  all  the  members  of 
that  party  throughout  the  country.  If  it  were,  neither  the  regularity  nor 
fairness  of  the  proceedings,  nor  the  fitness  of  the  candidate  nominated, 
could  ever  be  inquired  into.  The  truth  is,  that  the  act  of  a  majority  of 
the  delegates  in  a  National  Party  Convention  is  not  the  act  of  a  majority  of 
all  the  members  of  the  party,  unless  it  is  assumed  that  all  are  actually  or 
technically  represented.  That  all  are  not  actually  represented,  is  perfectly 
well  known.  Not  a  quarter  part  of  the  voters  of  any  great  political  party 
ever  take  part  in  the  proceedings  by  which  the  delegates  to  such  a  body 
are  appointed ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  easiest,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  common 
of  political  transactions,  for  political  managers,  especially  in  some  of  the 
other  States  of  this  Union,  to  procure  the  appointment  of  delegates,  whose 
purposes  as  to  the  selection  of  a  presidential  candidate  are  no  certain  and 
safe  guide  to  the  real  wishes  and  preferences  of  a  majority  of  their  nomi 
nal  constituents.  The  position,  therefore,  that  the  act  of  a  majority  of 
such  delegates  is  the  act  of  a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  party,  must 
rest  upon  the  doctrine  that  all  the  members  had  notice,  and  might  have 
attended  the  choice  of  delegates  if  they  had  seen  fit.  That  is  to  say,  it 
rests  upon  a  fiction,  by  which  every  man's  political  conscience  and  conduct 
are  to  become  bound  by  the  acts  and  doings  of  his  neighbor.  For  our 
selves  we  reject  this  doctrine.  We  hold  that  the  decision  of  a  majority  of  the 
delegates  in  a  National  Convention  is  not,  of  itself,  proof  of  the  sentiments 
and  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the  party ;  and  we  think  that  any  man  who 
will  ask  himself  whether  he  can  believe  that  a  majority  of  the  Whigs  of  the 
United  States  this  day  prefer  General  Scott  as  a  candidate,  to  Daniel 
Webster  or  Millard  Fillmore,  will  be  satisfied  with  the  soundness  of  our 
position.  We  are  here,  then,  in  all  the  freedom  of  our  individual  judg 
ments.  In  that  freedom  we  propose  to  examine  the  nomination  made  at 
Baltimore,  and  to  refer  the  action  of  the  Convention  which  made  it  to  the 
only  standard  which  we  recognize,  namely,  its  tendency  to  promote  and 
secure  the  good  of  the  country. 

The  Convention  assembled  at  Baltimore,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  for  the 
purpose  of  nominating  that  person  for  the  Presidency,  in  whom  would  be 
united  high  qualifications  for  the  office,  with  reasonable  chances  for  obtain 
ing  it  by  the  suffrages  of  the  people.  This  is  the  duty  of  a  party  Conven 
tion,  under  ordinary  circumstances.  But  on  the  occasion  of  the  late  Whig 
National  Convention,  the  circumstances  were  peculiar  and  extraordinary. 
One  of  the  candidates  before  that  Convention  was,  confessedly,  the  first 


6 

statesman  in  America  then  capable  of  being  thought  of  for  the  office.  He 
was  a  person  who  had  rendered  services  of  the  utmost  importance  to  his 
party.  On  three  several  occasions  he  had  supported  with  the  whole  power 
of  his  vast  influence,  rivals,  whose  claims  to  the  nomination,  except  in  one 
instance,  could  be  supposed  by  no  one  to  be  superior  to  his  own.  But 
above  and  beyond  all  this,  he  had  rendered  to  his  country  services  which 
surpassed  those  to  his  party,  in  as  large  a  measure  as  country  is  greater 
than  party  to  every  true  patriot.  He  was,  moreover,  a  person  fitted  beyond 
all  men  within  the  reach  of  the  Whig  party,  not  merely  to  adorn,  but  most 
beneficially  to  administer  the  high  office  in  question.  This  was  felt  and 
acknowledged  every  where  by  all  candid  persons.  The  common  judgment 
of  the  country,  the  current  and  admitted  forms  of  speech,  the  general  consent 
of  right-thinking  minds,  had  made  his  pre-eminent  fitness  for  that  great 
trust  a  maxim  among  men.  A  wide  and  confident  expectation  among  the 
masses  of  the  people,  who  had  nothing  to  gain  and  much  to  lose  by  adverse 
political  combinations,  looked  to  the  Whig  party,  in  confidence  that  it 
would  do  the  justice  to  the  country,  to  itself,  and  to  Mr.  Webster,  to  put  him 
in  nomination. 

The  time  was  most  propitious.  Party  animosity  had  died  away  before 
the  signal  merit  of  services,  which  challenged  the  equal  admiration  and 
gratitude  of  friends  and  opponents.  Personal  detraction,  save  from  the 
kennels  of  a  rabid  fanaticism,  had  ceased  to  pursue  him.  Public  confidence, 
respect,  affectionate  admiration  and  pride,  universal  appreciation  of  the 
vast  importance  to  the  country  of  his  life,  health  and  happiness,  broke  forth 
to  him,  wherever  popular  feeling  had  an  opportunity  of  expression. 
Never  had  a  party  such  an  opportunity  to  confer  a  vast  good  upon  a  free 
country  ;  and  never  was  such  an  opportunity  more  unworthily  lost. 

It  was  lost,  we  are  told,  because  a  majority  of  those  who  were  sent  to 
the  Convention  to  select  a  candidate  preferred  some  one  else,  and  chose  to 
exercise  their  preferences.  We  admit  the  fact ;  but,  as  a  portion  of  the 
people  of  this  country,  we  claim  and  shall  exercise  the  right  to  judge  of 
the  reasonableness  and  propriety  of  those  preferences.  By  whatsoever 
constituency  each  of  those  delegates  was  appointed,  they  were  all  assembled 
to  execute  a  public  trust  upon  public  motives.  A  great  party  organiza 
tion,  like  any  other  social  instrumentality,  is  a  trust  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  hold  it  j  to  be  exercised  and  discharged  upon  motives  which  will  bear 
the  test  of  subsequent  examination  and  submission  to  the  moral  judgment 
of  mankind. 

Mr.  Webster  was  set  aside  in  the  National  Convention,  and  Gen.  Scott 
was  preferred  by  a  majority  of  the  members;- — first,  because  the  latter, 
being  a  military  man,  supposed  to  have  gained  great  personal  popularity  by 
his  military  success,  was  believed  to  be,  in  the  language  of  party  tacticians, 
the  more  "  available  "  candidate.  We  will  not  do  any  member  of  that 
convention  the  injustice  to  suppose,  that  his  preference  was  determined  by 


a  belief  that  the  military  candidate  possessed  superior  fitness  for  the  office 
of  President.  The  ruling  motive,  in  this  c§se,  was  the  same  which,  on  two 
former  occasions,  had  led  to  the  selection,  by  the  Whig  party,  of  military 
men  as  candidates  for  the  Presidency,  to  the  exclusion  of  their  most  expe 
rienced  and  most  accomplished  statesmen  :  in  one  of  which  instances,  the 
candidate  was  without  any  civil  experience  whatever.  Against  this  princi 
ple  of  political  action  we  desire  and  intend  to  enter  our  protest.  It  is  an 
appeal  to  the  people,  contrary  to  the  truth  of  the  case,  to  regard  military 
success  as  evidence  of  a  fitness  to  discharge  the  highest  civil  trust  in  the 
country,  as  well  as  the  ablest  and  most  accomplished  and  experienced 
statesmen  in  the  land. 

There  is  no  executive  government  in  the  world,  in  which  civil  wisdom  and 
a  trained  practical  statesmanship  are  so  necessary  as  in  the  Presidency  of 
this  great  republic.  Consider  for  a  moment  that  our  government  is  founded 
on,  and  administered  under,  a  written  Constitution  ;  and  that  the  doctrines 
which  are  to  go  into  that  high  office  and  be  practically  applied  in  adminis 
tering  that  Constitution,  if  they  are  to  be  of  the  least  value,  must  be  the 
fruit  of  long  civil  study,  of  practical  acquaintance  with  principles,  and  of 
vast  civil  experience.  Consider  that  the  whole  machinery  of  the  govern 
ment  is  civil  administration.  Consider  that  all  the  offices  which  a  Presi 
dent  holds  in  his  hand  for  distribution — from  the  highest  of  the  Judiciary, 
who  may  have  to  pass  upon  even  his  acts,  to  the  tide-waiter  upon  the 
wharves,  who  is  to  obey  without  questioning  the  law — are  all  to  be  filled  by 
the  exercise  of  a  discretion,  which  can  exist,  in  full  and  just  development, 
only  after  great  experience  in  the  civil  departments  of  government.  Con 
sider  the  great  influence  which  the  character  and  opinions  of  a  President 
exert  over  the  legislation  of  the  country ; — an  influence  which  the  Consti 
tution  contemplated,  and  which  usage  has  made  quite  as  powerful  as  it  was 
ever  designed  to  be.  Consider,  finally,  that  the  foreign  relations  of  this 
country  are  at  all  times  full  of  questions,  for  the  right,  management  of 
which  a  military  life  and  military  experience  can  afford  scarcely  any  train 
ing  whatever. 

We  are  not  in  the  slightest  degree  desirous  to  detract  from  the  just  merits 
of  Gen.  Scott,  as  a  highly  distinguished  and  successful  soldier,  or  to  refuse 
to  him  appropriate  honors  and  rewards  for  his  very  brilliant  military  servi 
ces  to  the  country.  But  we  do  not  consider  that  the  Presidency  is  the 
appropriate  honor,  or  that  it  is  fit  that  it  should  be  held  and  bestowed  as  a 
reward  for  military  distinction.  If  we  have  taken  a  correct  view  of  the 
duties  which  it  involves,  we  are  compelled  frankly  to  say,  that  we  do  not 
know  what  evidence  the  distinguished  nominee  of  the  Baltimore  Convention 
has  given,  of  that  degree  of  fitness  for  it,  which  a  Whig  candidate  ought  to 
possess.  We  say  a  Whig  candidate — for  we  are  not  prepared  to  admit  that 
the  Whig  party  is  morally  at  liberty  to  regard  only  the  elements  of  popu 
lar  success  in  the  canvass,  and  to  treat  its  most  eminent  leaders,  its  wisest 


8 

Statesmen,  and  its  long-tried  and  faithful  champions,  with  neglect  and  in 
justice,  because  they  do  not  possess  the  means  of  appealing  to  a  popular 
love  of  military  glory.  The  Whig  party  is  an  organization  professing  dis 
tinctive  political  principles.  It  has  benefitted  the  country,  through  the 
labors  of  its  great  statesmen,  who  have  established,  defended,  and  adminis 
tered  the  principles  which  characterise  it,  and  by  which  alone  it  can  con 
tinue  to  be  useful.  If  it  is  to  cast  such  men  aside,  and  bestow  the  highest 
honors  of  the  Hepublic  upon  those,  whose  sphere  of  action  has  "not  identi 
fied  them  with  the  maintenance  or  illustration  of  the  great  principles  which 
constitute  it  a  party,  it  will  either  achieve  victories  fruitless  of  benefit  to 
the  country,  or  achieve  its  own  destruction. 

We  are  not  prepared  to  see  the  Whig  party  go  down  in  the  confusion 
and  inefficiency  which  must  ensue  from  the  continuance  of  a  practice,  that 
removes  its  great  statesmen  from  their  true  positions  as  its  leaders,  its  coun 
sellors  and  guides.  We  cannot  thus  surrender  its  glorious  civil  history, 
which  has  been  marked  from  its  early  formation  as  a  party,  in  all  its  suc 
cesses  and  all  its  reverses,  with  unquestionable  usefulness.  We  cannot  for 
get  that  it  was  Whig  statemanship,  of  the  very  highest  order,  which  main 
tained  a  long  contest  with  a  powerful  adverse  executive,  and  thereby  pre 
vented  the  Constitution  from  being  wholly  wrested  out  of  its  legitimate 
sphere.  We  cannot  forget  whose  voice  and  whose  influence  it  was,  that 
eame  to  the  aid  of  that  executive,  in  an  hour  when  patriotism  demanded  the 
oblivion  of  all  party  differences,  and  crushed  nullification  forever.  We 
cannot  forget  that  it  has  been  Whig  policy,  vindicated  and  sustained  by 
Whig  leaders,  that  has  given  to  the  industry  of  the  country  all  the  protec 
tion  it  has  ever  enjoyed,  and  to  internal  improvements,  all  the  vitality  they 
have  ever  felt.  We  cannot  forget  that  it  was  a  Whig  civilian,  who  rescued 
the  country  from  a  foreign  war,  and  whose  words  of  warning,  wisdom,  truth 
and  courage,  dispelled  the  gathered  clouds  of  domestic  strife,  that  were 
about  to  burst  in  fury  over  the  land.  All  that  the  Whig  party  has  ever 
accomplished  for  the  country,  all  the  principles  that  it  has  made  efficient  in 
the  administration  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  all  the  positive  blessings 
which  it  has  achieved  for  the  Union,  it  owes  to  the  labors  of  its  statesmen, 
sustained  by  the  intelligence  and  patriotism  of  the  people.  No  act  of  ours 
shall  ever  have  a  tendency  to  destroy  the  influence  and  limit  the  usefulness 
of  that  order  of  public  men,  of  whom  the  greatest  living  example  now  pre 
sents,  in  his  own  person,  the  strongest  proof  that  party  neglect  may  become 
a  public  injury. 

There  is  another  ground  upon  which  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  support 
the  nomination  made  at  Baltimore,  which  we  shall  briefly  lay  before  you. 

During  the  administration  which  is  soon  to  terminate,  this  country  passed 
through  the  most  dangerous  crisis  which  has  occurred  since  the  formation 
of  the  government.  The  firm  and  willing  maintenance  and  administration 
of  the  measures  deemed  necessary  to  meet  that  crisis,  are,  beyond  all  doubt, 


9 

essential  to  the  continued  tranquility  and  peace  of  the  Union.  The  Whig 
party  has  affirmed  this  position  as  a  capital  article  of  its  creed  :  and  it  is  a 
circumstance  of  no  small  significance,  that  the  Democratic  party  has  done 
the  same  thing.  Yet  it  is  a  fact,  incapable,  we  think,  of  denial,  that  the 
distinguished  head  of  the  army  was  selected  and  brought  forward  as  a 
candidate,  by  that  portion  of  the  Whig  party,  who  deny  the  propriety  of 
affirming  the  finality  of  the  Compromise  Measures,  and  who  mean  to  hold 
themselves  at  liberty  to  renew  the  sectional  agitation  of  those  questions, 
whenever  they  see  fit.  The  fact  that  a  majorityof  his  original  supporters 
in  the  Convention — sixty-six  in  number — voted  against  the  platform  of 
principles  which  the  Convention  adopted,  can  leave  no  doubt  as  to 
their  sentiments  and  their  purposes.  Whether  it  was  under  their  influ 
ence  or  sonic  other,  that  the  Convention  was  kept  in  ignorance  of 
the  personal  sentiments  of  the  candidate,  and  that  private  informa 
tion  only  was  given  to  a  few  persons,  whose  sense  of  public  duty 
was  supposed  likely  to  be  satisfied  with  private  information,  we  do  not 
think  it  material  to  inquire.  Nor  is  the  fact  of  decisive  importance,  that 
the  candidate  personally  approved  or  favored  the  original  enactment  of  the 
measures  in  question,  or  that  he  has  subsequently,  in  accepting  the  candi 
dacy,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  accepted  the  platform  of  the  party  which 
offered  to  him  the  nomination.  The  position  of  the  party  itself  is,  how 
ever,  of  great  consequence.  It  has  formally  declared  the  duty  of  main 
taining  and  executing  a  series  of  measures  of  great  public  importance.  At 
the  same  time,  it  has  rejected  two  candidates  identified  with  the  enactment 
and  execution  of  those  measures,  and  personally  responsible  for  their  ex 
istence,  and  has  adopted  a  candidate  who  is  not  identified  with  them,  and 
whose  principle  supporters  in  one  entire  section  of  the  Union  refused  to 
acknowledge  the  duty  of  preserving  and  enforcing  them. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
danger,  that  the  Whig  party — whatever  may  be  the  personal  wishes  of  its 
head — may  be  withdrawn,  as  a  party,  from  one  section  of  the  Union,  and 
be  obliged  to  find  its  principal  and  most  efficient  support  in  another  section. 
An  administration  that  should  come  into  power,  in  such  a  posture,  might 
prolong  the  nominal  existence  of  the  party,  only  to  turn  it  into  a  sectional 
organization ;  and  the  personal  wishes  or  honest  intentions  of  its  chief  would 
avail  little  in  the  execution  of  measures,  which  his  principal  supporters' 
might  be  unwilling  to  execute,  in  favor  of  a  portion  of  the  country  that 
did  not  contribute  materially  to  .the  strength  of  his  administration. 

Wre  make  no  impeachment  of  the  integrity  of  the  candidate.  We  look 
at  public  facts,  the  position  of  the  Whig  party,  and  the  interests  of  the 
country ;  and  upon  these  we  are  constrained  to  say,  that  we  cannot  feel  the 
force  of  the  appeal  that  is  made  to  us,  upon  public  grounds,  to  support  this 
nomination.  The  position  in  which  we  are  placed  is  not  of  our  own  choos 
ing.  It  has  been  forced  upon  us  by  those  who  had  objects  to  gain  in 


10 

which  we  cannot  participate,  and  we  must  act  upon  our  own  sense  of  duty, 
exercised  upon  the  facts  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 

Deprived,  by  these  considerations,  of  the  power  of  voting  for  the  regu'ar 
candidate  of  our  own  party,  we  do  not  choose  to  be  driven  to  the  alterna 
tive  presented  by  the  Democratic  nomination.  We  know  too  well  the 
importance  of  avoiding  all  affiliation  with  those,  who  have  brought  upon 
our  own  Commonwealth  the  mischiefs  and  disgraces  of  the  "  Coalition." 
With  you  we  mean  to  defend  the  time-honored  institutions  of  the  State, 
and  to  place  at  the  head  of  its  government  an  able  and  honorable  man, 
whose  administration  will  be  worthy  of  its  long  established  character. 
But  to  the  principles  on  which  we  act,  in  relation  to  national  interests,  we 
remain  firm  ;  arid  for  the  sake  of  those  principles,  and  to  do  all  that  we 
ciin  to  secure  their  just  influence,  we  place  in  nomination  the  electoral 
ticket  which  we  now  present  to  you. 

In  the  event  of  the  success  of  either  of  the  other  candidates  for  the 
Presidency,  the  public  life  of  the  first  statesman  of  the  country  must  be 
terminated.  The  unrivalled  intellect  and  lofty  patriotism  which  Massachu 
setts  has  for  more  than  thirty  years  given  to  the  councils  of  the  country, 
must  be  forever  withdrawn  from  every  department  of  the  public  service. 
It.  were  vain  to  ask  how  this  void  is  to  be  filled.  But  if  it  must  happen 
before  the  ordination  of  Providence  brings  it  upon  us,  is  it  a  thing  quite 
unworthy  of  Massachusetts,  that  the  last  honors  which  the  ballot  box  can 
render,  should  be  bestowed  upon  him  who  has  done  so  much  for  her  honor, 
her  influence,  her  prosperity  and  her  security  ?  Time  was,  when  she 
deemed  it  no  idle  and  empty  ceremony  to  confer  upon  him  her  electoral 
vote,  although  it  stood  alone.  On  that  occasion  her  vote  was  not  necessary 
to  his  fame,  or  demanded  for  personal  gratification ;  nor  is  it  now.  But 
then,  as  now,  a  deep  popular  sense  of  justice,  and  a  clear  popular  sentiment 
of  gratitude  sought  expression  through  the  suffrages  of  the  people,  and 
proclaimed  to  all  the  world  that  a  nice  balance  of  advantages,  not  easy  to 
be  discerned,  does  not  always  become  a  people  who  have  been  served  as  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  have  been  served  by  DANIEL  WEBSTER.* 

If  she  looks  no  farther  than  to  her  own  domestic  history,  she  sees  in  that 
life  which  has  spent  its  vast  treasures  for  her  welfare,  the  occasion  for  no 
ordinary  feeling.  The  very  foundations  of  the  State  Constitution,  which 
has  been  such  a  blessing  to  her,  and  to  the  defence  of  which  her  people  are 
now  called  to  rally,  were  deepened  by  his  labors.  To  his  wisdom  and 
eloquence  she  owes  much  of  its  strength  and  virtue.  To  his  courage  and 
his  profound  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  free  government,  she  owes 
directly  many  of  the  inestimable  safeguards  which  its  principles  enshrine. 
And  when  to  this  older  record  of  great  service  she  adds  the  long  catalogue  of 

*  Any  one  who  will  consider  how  very  improbable  is  the  election  of  Gen.  Scott,  even  with 
tli£  electoral  vote  of  Mussachusetts,  will  see,  that  a  vote  cast  for  the  Scott  ticket,  in  this  State,  is 
thrown  away,  in  a  sense  far  more  plain  and  palpable,  than  it  can  be  if  cast  for  Mr.  Webster. 


11 

deeds,  which  have  filled  up  the  measure  of  her  national  renown,  and  connected 
her  name  with  the  preservation  of  a  Union  which  she  was  one  of  the  fore 
most  to  create,  she  will  never  account  that  suffrage  an  unworthy  or  useless 
act,  which  seeks,  in  honoring  him,  to  honor  all  that  has  been  most  noble  in 
her  own  history  since  that  Union  was  formed. 

But  we  do  not  limit  our  hopes  to  a  complimentary  vote  by  the  people  of 
Massachusetts. 

We  call  upon  the  friends  of  the  Union  everywhere,  throughout  the  coun 
try,  to  arouse  themselves  from  the  lethargy  which  is  upon  them,  and  to  act 
with  the  vigor  that  becomes  them. 

We  call  upon  independent  Whigs  everywhere,  to  reject  an  organization 
which  will  hand  down  the  national  government  to  a  sectional  fragment  of 
their  great  party,  in  hands  that  they  cannot  approve. 

We  call  upon  the  People  everywhere  to  undo  the  work  of  politicians  of 
every  party,  who  would  persuade  them  that  they  have  too  little  intelligence 
to  confer  their  highest  honors  upon  their  best  statesmen,  and  that  military 
reputation  is  the  best  avenue  to  the  government  of  this  great  Republic. 
Even  now,  if  they  will  assume  their  own  rightful  control  over  the  destinies 
of  their  country,  it  is  not  too  late  to  place  at  the  head  of  its  affairs  an  ad 
ministration  worthy  of  its  better  days,  and  able  to  perpetuate,  to  a  United 
People,  a  Constitution  which  has  made  the  blessings  of  Liberty  and  Union 
One  and  Inseparable. 

The  Address  was  adopted  by  acclamation,  and  the  Convention  then 
adjourned  to  half-past  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

EVENING    SESSION. 

The  Convention  re-assembled  at  half-past  seven  o'clock,  at  which  hour 
the  hall  was  thronged  to  its  fullest  capacity.  The  President  stated 
the  first  business  in  order  was  to  hear  the  reports  of  the  Committees  ap- 
pointedin  the  morning ;  where  upon  John  L.  Dimmick,  from  the  Committee 
on  the  subject,  submitted  the  following  list  of  Electors : 

PRESIDENTIAL      ELECTORS. 

AT  LARGE— PLINY  CUTLER,  of  Boston. 

EDWARD  A.  NEWTON,  of  Pittsfield. 
DISTRICT  No.  1— ISAIAH  GIFFORD,  of  Provincetown. 

2— LEMUEL  MAY,  of  Attleboro'. 

3— FREDERICK  W.  LINCOLN,  of  Canton. 


« 


4_WILLIAM  HAYDEN,  of  Boston. 

5—  GEORGE  T.  CURTIS,  of  Boston. 

6—  MARK  HEALEY,  of  Lynn. 

7—  ALBERT  H.  NELSON,  of  Woburn. 

8—  HENRY  B.  PEARSON,  of  Harvard. 


9—  ALVIN    G.    UNDERWOOD,  of  Oxford. 
10—  HOMER  FOOTE,  of  Springfield. 
"        "  11—  LUTHER  GRIFFING,  of  Richmond. 


12 

The  report  was  accepted  by  a  unanimous  vote,  followed  by  great  cheer 
ing.  C.  A.  White  submitted  the  following  names  of  gentlemen  to 
constitute  the 

WEBSTER  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

HUBBARD  WINSLOW,  of  Boston. 

TOLMAN  WILLEY,  of  Boston. 

HENRY  LYMAN,  of  Watertown. 

CHARLES  A.  WHITE,  of  Boston. 

J.  D.  HEDGE,  of  Cambridge. 

JOHN  L.  DIMMOCK,  of  Watertown. 

CHARLES  A.  WELLS,  of  Boston. 

THOMAS  THACHER,  of  Roxbury. 

ARTHUR  PICKERING,  of  Boston. 

CHARLES  TORREY,  of  Boston. 

This  report  was  accepted,  whereupon  the  following  resolution  was 
adopted : 

Rcsoh^d,  That  the  Executive  State  Committee  be,  and  they  hereby  are  instructed 
and  authorized  to  fill  any  vacancy  that  may  occur  in  the  ticket  of  Electors,  or  in  their 
own  body ;  also,  to  add  to  the  number  of  the  Executive  Committee  at  their  pleasure, 
and  to  take  all  other  proper  measures  to  promote  the  objects  for  which  the  present 
ticket  of  Electors  is  nominated. 

Addresses  were  made  by  Messrs.  M.  H.  Smith,  A.  Wilson,  II.  Winslow, 
and  S.  L.  Cutter.  They  were  speeches  of  a  high  tone — moral  in  sentiment 
and  dignified  in  thought. 

Mr.  Winslow,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  speech,  offered  the  following  res 
olutions,  which  were  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  those  men  who  serve  their  country  most  faithfully  in  the  army,  ought 
to  receive  from  their  country  its  highest  military  honors ;  and  those  men  who  serve 
their  country  most  faithfully  in  the  councils  of  state,  ought  to  receive  from  their  country 
its  highest  civic  honors. 

Resolved,  That  our  country,  our  whole  country,  in  all  its  vast  extent  and  various  in 
terests,  is  entitled  to  the  equal  and  full  protection  of  its  Constitution,  in  all  its  piovi- 
sions  and  requirements. 

Resolved,  That  whatever  sectional  jealousies  and  agitations  may  occur  to  mar  the 
peace  of  the  Union,  we  shall  ever  hold  it  to  be  our  privilege  and  our  duty,  firmly 
to  abide  by  the  principles,  and  faithfully  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of  the  national  com 
pact. 

Resolved,  That  the  man  who  has  served  his  country  the  most  faithfully  for  the  longest 
period,  in  the  councils  of  state,  of  any  man  living,  is  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  and  that  to 
him,  pro  eminently,  the  nation  owes  its  highest  civic  honors. 

Resolved,  That  as  citizens  of  this  republic,  we  will  do  what  we  can  to  induce  our 
country  to  pay  this  glorious  debt. 

Resolved,  That  whether  our  country  shall  prove  faithful  or  false  to  this  obligation,  it 
shall  ever  be  among  our  happiest  reflections,  that  we  were  true  to  our  country  in  this 
matter,  and  did  what  every  citizen  ought  to  have  done — CAST  OOR  MOST  HEARTY  VOTE 
FOR  DANIEL  WEBSTER/ 

At  a  quarter  of  ten  o'clock  the  Convention  adjourned,  amid  cheers  for 
DANIEL  WEBSTER  of  Massachusetts  and  CHARLES  J.  JENKINS  of  Georgia,  the 
candidates  of  the  Union  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  for  President  and  Vice 
President  of  the  United  States. 


/ 


feiii»3tts 

"  &Mbhe  f  rieida 


M187337 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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